Faculty & Staff

An accomplished faculty and staff instruct, guide and inspire Edinboro students to not only achieve, but to dare to be great. Small class sizes and an internationally recognized instructional faculty—90 percent of whom hold terminal degrees—offer students a personalized and effective education.

Lisa Brightman came to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1994 after eight years of teaching in various public schools in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Since coming to EU, she has served as the Assistant Chair for the Early Childhood/Reading Department, procured several grants involving technology, online learning and curriculum development. She currently teaches methods courses in the areas of science and child development as well as supervises students in field placements. She is actively involved in the Freshman Initiative serving several years on the committee as well as heading the Freshman Common Hour for her department.

Her professional career outside of academia includes serving as the secretary in the READ Council board located in Meadville, Pennsylvania, co-chair for the Chocoholic Frolic, an annual fundraiser for the READ program and teaches religious education at her local parish.

Family is an important aspect of her life. This includes her husband, three children and two dogs. She enjoys spending time outdoors running, hiking and spending time with family gathered around a campfire.

Dr. John Cussen joined the EU faculty in 2000. Prior to his arrival at EU, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati and taught for five years in South Korea, primarily in the University of Maryland’s Asian Division but also at Konkuk University--Seoul. At EU he teaches courses in literature and writing.

Dr. Cussen has been the recipient of a Fulbright Award to India, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute fellowship, three Latin American Studies summer library research fellowships (Cornell University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pittsburgh) and three Pennsylvania Humanities Council grants.

His peer-reviewed essays on Colombian García Márquez, Peruvian Vargas Llosa, Irishmen Yeats, Joyce and Beckett, Americans Theroux. Cahan and Lahiri, and North Korean defectors’ memoirs have appeared in Journal of Modern Literature, Religion and the Arts, Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies, The College English Association Critic, The New Hibernia Review, Studies in Travel Writing, The Yeats Journal of Korea, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, JEAL: Journal of Ethnic American Literature, ANQ: American Notes Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, Korean Studies: Journal of the Center for KoreanStudies other places.

His short stories have appeared in Confrontation, Fiction, Ascent, Cincinnati Magazine, Potpourri, Ambergris and elsewhere.

His book reviews and book review essays have appeared in The Review of Korean Studies, International Journal of Korean History, JAS: Journal of Asian Studies, The North Dakota Quarterly, World Literature Today, The Southern Humanities Review, India Currents, Studies in Short Fiction, the Irish Literary Supplement, 20th-Century Literature, Full Stop, Rain Taxi, Ithaca Times, and the Erie Times-News.

His current research chiefly concerns contemporary immigrant American fiction and North Korea.

Dr. Karim Hossain joined the Edinboro University in 1987 with the passion to make physics fun!

His graduate research from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville focused on laser physics. When he began teaching, Dr. Hossain realized that students in physics courses exhibited an anxiety that limited their motivation to learn. To improve the learning situation as well as his teaching technique, Dr. Hossain pursued his PhD in Physics Education at the State University of New York – Buffalo. Dr. Hossain also researches the global comparison of students’ performance in STEM courses. The U.S. is recognized as a leading nation in several areas, but the nation perpetuates alarmingly mediocre scores in STEM fields. Dr. Hossain compares the problems and prospects of science education in America on a global scale.

Dr. Hossain emphasizes that the ideas of physics should be understood conceptually before being used as a base for applied mathematics. Traditional physics courses apply a 'problem solving' approach. In this approach, students solve problems by manipulation of twigs and branches while they may lack a conceptual understanding of the tree’s trunk from which the branches stem. His approach is to choose a few of the concepts presented in the reading, cite illustrative analogies, and then start a discussion. The students are then able to tie physics to their personal experiences. Students learn to see physics not as a classroom activity but as a part of everyday living. Dr. Hossain is noted for his engaging (and fun!) lectures at EU.

Professor Howard Lyon is a member of the Erie Philharmonic and concertmaster emeritus of the Erie Chamber Orchestra. He coaches the Erie Jr Philharmonic String Ensemble and teaches strings at Edinboro University.

Prior to Erie, he played in the Lansing, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo Symphonies and was a founding member of the Olivet Chamber Music Players. He holds a degree in applied music from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

He also enjoys playing in the Lake Erie String Quartet at many special events in the region.

Anthony McMullen joined the EU faculty in 2007, where he serves as Systems Librarian at the Baron-Forness Library. Prior to coming to Edinboro, he served as Systems Librarian at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania and Reference Librarian at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His areas of interest include graphical interface design, user experience, website heuristics, and emerging technologies and their impact on the information search and retrieval process. His viewpoint column “Running on empty” appears in the peer-reviewed quarterly journal The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances and uses real world experiences to illustrate the challenges faced and rewards gained in the provision of library technology services. He earned his MSLS from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and MSEd from Capella University where he completed the Instructional Design for Online Learning program.

McMullen was born and grew up in nearby Oil City, Pa., where he cultivated a fascination of the rich history of Western Pa. by exploring the hills in and around Petroleum Centre, Pithole City, Titusville, and other areas comprising “the valley that changed the world.” He currently serves as editor of The Fountain, the annual publication of the Edinboro Area Historical Society.

In his spare time, McMullen enjoys hiking, biking, geocaching, and exploring the area landscape with his daughter and son.

Andy Pushchak came to Edinboro University in 2002, and he currently serves as program head and professor of Educational Leadership. Upon arriving at EU, he was tasked with revising and updating the former School Administration program as well as developing a new Superintendents Letter of Eligibility program. Under his direction, all of the programs became nationally recognized and accredited. He also developed and delivered the first online graduate course in Educational Leadership in 2002.

Based upon his skills and abilities related to revising the Educational Leadership programs, he was selected by the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education to lead a team from EU to revise and update the Pennsylvania Standards and Program Guidelines for Principal and Superintendent programs. He secured a $50,000 grant and served as project director to implement the Leadership for Student Achievement Pilot project. He participated in over $100,000 of further grant work related to Principal Leadership and Student Achievement through the following initiatives: Principal’s Leadership Induction Network; Pennsylvania Principal Mentoring Network; and Leadership and Excellence for Administrators in Pennsylvania Schools. He has presented papers and authored journal articles nationally and internationally on topics of Principal Leadership, Teacher Leadership, adult learning and graduate online education.

He serves his community as a member of his local Board of School Directors, a member of the Academic Advisory Committee for Erie’s Public Schools and as coach of many youth athletic teams. Along with his wife and their six children, he is also very active in the local Byzantine Catholic faith community.